APPENDIX. 



15. 



than one of our large edifices, (for example, St. 

 Paul s church, London,) may, by such an in 

 strument, be easily distinguished. Now, if every 

 minute point on the lunar surface were accu 

 rately marked by numerous observers, it might 

 be ascertained whether any changes are taking 

 place, either from physical causes, or from the 

 operations of intelligent agents. If a large forest 

 were cutting down if a city were building in 

 an open plain, or extending its former bounda 

 riesif a barren waste were changing into a 

 scene of vegetation or, if an immense con 

 course of animated beings were occasionally 

 assembled on a particular spot, or shifting from 

 one place to another such changes would be 

 ind &quot;&quot; d by certain modifications of shade, co- 

 loui, or motion ; and, consequently, would furnish 

 a direct proof of the agency of intelligent beings 

 analogous to man, and of the moon being a ha 

 bitable globe. For although we may never be 

 able to distinguish the inhabitants of the moon, 

 (if any exist,) yet if we can trace those Affects 

 which can flow only from the operations of intel 

 ligent agents, it would form a complete demon 

 stration of their existence, on the same ground 

 on which a navigator concludes an unknown 

 island to be inhabited, when he perceives human 

 habitations, and cultivated fields. 



&quot; That changes occasionally happen on the 

 lunar hemisphere next the earth, appears from 

 the observations of Horschel and Schroeter, par 

 ticularly from those of the latter. In the trans 

 actions of the Society of Natural Philosophy, 

 at Berlin, Schroeter relate-s, that on the SOt^i 

 December, 1791, at five o clock, P.M. with a seven 

 feet reflector, magnifying 161 times, he perceived 

 the commencement of a small crater on the 

 Bouth-we-st declivity of the volcanic mountain 

 in the Mare Crisium, having a shadow of at 

 least 1&quot; 5. On the llth January, at twenty 

 minutes past five, on looking at this place again, 

 he could see neither the new crater nor its sha 

 dow. Again, on the 4th January, 1792, he 

 perceived, in the eastern crater of Helicon, a 

 central mountain, of a clear gray colour, 3 r/ in 

 diameter, of which, during many years obser 

 vations, he had perceived no trace. This ap 

 pearance, he adds, is remarkable, as probably 

 from the time of Hevelius, the western part of 

 Helicon has been forming into its present shape, 

 and nature seems, in that district, to be parti 

 cularly active. In making such minute obser 

 vations as those to which I allude, it would be 

 proper, along with an inspection of the moon s 

 luminous disk, to mark the appearances of dif 

 ferent portions of her dark hemisphere, when it 

 is partially enlightened by the reflected light 

 from the earth, soon after the appearance of new 

 moon. These researches woul:l require a long- 

 continued series of the most minute observa 

 tions, by numerous observers ir. different regions 

 of the globe, which could be effected only by 



exciting, among the bulk of mankind, a general 

 attention to such investigations. But were this 

 object accomplished, and were numerous obser 

 vations made from the tops of mountains, and in 

 the serene sky of southern climes, where the 

 powers of the telescope are not counteracted by 

 dense vapours, there can be little doubt that direct 

 proofs would be obtained that the moon is a 

 habitable world ; or, at least, that the question 

 in relation to this point would be completely set 

 at rest.&quot; 



No. IV. Remarks on the late pretended due* 

 very of a Lunar Fortification. 



The British public was lately amused by the 

 announcement of a discovery said to have been 

 made by Professor Frauenhofer, of Munich. 

 This gentleman was said to have discovered a 

 fortification in the moon, and to have distin 

 guished several lines of road, supposed to be the 

 work of the unar inhabitants. It is scarcely 

 necessary to say, that such announcements are 

 obviously premature. To perceive distinctly 

 the shape of an object in the moon, which re 

 sembles a fortification, it is requisite, that that 

 object be of a much larger size than our terres 

 trial ramparts. Besides, although an object 

 resembling one of our fortifications were per 

 ceived on the surface of the moon, there would 

 be no reason to conclude, that it served the same 

 purpose as fortifications do among us. We are 

 so much accustomed to war in our terrestrial 

 system, and reflect so little on its diabolical na 

 ture, that we are apt to imagine that it must form 

 a necessary employment even in other worlds. 

 To be assured that a fortification existed in the 

 moon for the same purpose as with us, would 

 indeed be dismal tidings from another world ; 

 for it would be a necessary conclusion, from such* 

 intelligence, that the inhabitants of that globe 

 are actuated by the same principles of depravity, 

 ambition, and revenge, which have infected the 

 moral atmosphere of our sublunary world. With 

 regard to the pretended discovery of the lunar 

 roads, it may not be improper to remark, that 

 such roads behooved to be at least 400 feet 

 broad, or ten times the breadth of ours, in order 

 to be perceived as faint lines through a telescope 

 which magnifies a thousand times ; which is a 

 higher power, I presume, than Frauenhofer can 

 apply with distinctness to any of his telescopes. 

 It is not at all likely that the lunar inhabitants 

 are of such a gigantic size, or employ carriages 

 of such an enormous bulk, as to require roads of 

 such dimensions, since the whole surface of the 

 moon is only the thirteenth part of the area of 

 our globe. 



Schroeter conjectures the existence of a great 

 city to the north of Manus, (a spot in the moon,) 

 and of an extensive canal towards Hygena, (an 

 other spot,) and he represents part of the spot 



